Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace, the young nation of Israel is at a decision point, similar to what we so often face in life.

Pastor Ed Taylor: It helps me a lot to remember, when I do remember, that the Lord allows difficulties in my life to bring me to a place of decision. Will I trust and obey and abide and rest, or will I freak out and be all upset and get into the flesh and on and on the list goes? Will I be in the spirit or will I be in the flesh?

Guest (Male): Recently on Abounding Grace, we've been tracing the steps of the Israelites, delivered from slavery in Egypt and more recently from the pursuing Egyptian army at the Red Sea. We couldn't help but see the power and faithfulness of God through it all. But now they come to Marah, a place with bitter water.

If we were to look back on our lives, we could probably identify a season of Marah where we've become bitter. It happens to us all the time, just as it did for the nation of Israel. But here's the good news: your bitterness can be healed. Here's Pastor Ed Taylor to explain.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Exodus chapter 15 and we'll pick up where we left off last time. I've entitled our Bible study, "Your Bitterness Can be Healed." I'm so thankful that we get to sing songs to the Lord, aren't you? It's such a gift that God has given to us. We get to express our hearts, all of the ups, all of the downs. We get to cry out to the Lord.

We get to thank Him. We get to sit in, even. Sometimes we'll find ourselves in a place where we get to sit in a room like this, and we may come in not even wanting to sing, but we get to hear other people sing and almost ride the wave of their faith and their encouragement just for a season. We have the privilege of putting on our earbuds or our headphones and listening to music that was written to worship God, that was inspired by various women and men that God has given to His church.

I've found God's gift often comes to us through a song. We as a church are very blessed to have many wonderful and talented and gifted worship leaders, worship teams. You know what our prayer is? Lord, give us more. Give us more. Give us more men and women that will step up with the gifts and talents that God has given to you in the realm of music and be used.

It may not be up on the stage here; it may be with the junior highers. You may be a part of the worship that's taking place with the kids. You might just walk into the property with a song on your heart and we overhear you singing it to the Lord and you encourage us. In chapter 15 of Exodus, we were introduced to the song of Moses. It was a song of victory. It was a song of celebration.

These people, this nation, is rejoicing. Why? Because they thought they were dead, but now they're alive. Just even in the song is a picture of the coming Messiah who everyone saw that was dead, but in three days later, He's alive. Here they are singing in response to all that God has done. We looked at that in depth last time, that true worship comes from an overflowing heart in response to what God has done.

We're not trying to bring God down, we're not trying to work Him up, so maybe if we sing enough and we're loud enough, then maybe God will meet us here. God is already here and He's faithful. He is the instigator, we're the responders. He's the one that initiates and we're the ones that say yes and amen.

This nation could see no way out. I'm sure among the millions there, some of them just thought, this is it, it's over, we're done. And yet now they're miraculously alive. It says in verse one of chapter 15, "Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord and they spoke, saying..."

Remember the Bible doesn't have chapter breaks. It wasn't written that way. Chapter breaks and verses were added much later on to help us remember and to see where things are. Because chapter 15 verse one follows chapter 14 verse 30. Notice with me now in seeing the response always comes with the initiation.

"So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt, so the people feared the Lord, believed the Lord and His servant Moses. Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord."

Can I just pause for a second and speak to those of you that don't like to sing, or don't like the songs, or don't like the new songs coming out, or whatever it may be toward music? You may even be here thinking, "I'm okay with the Bible studies, Pastor. I'll even rearrange my life where I'll come in a little late. I'll miss the music. I come for the Bible study and I'll leave after."

Can I just speak to you just for a moment and remind you of this? It may not be a preference for you, and it may not be an opinion for you, and it may not be what you like and what you don't like. It just may be you haven't seen God's faithfulness in a while. I don't mean that God hasn't been faithful, I mean that you have refused to see the faithfulness of God.

Maybe your thankfulness has been lacking and you're just taking credit for things that God is constantly doing in your life. Maybe you're under the weight of a great burden or barrier and that's all you can see. You've got all this goodness and the grace of God and His finished work on the cross for you and the forgiveness of sin, but then you get through these things and they just blind you.

They're so small in compared to the big work of God. In preparation for song when you come to your church, ask God to show you His faithfulness. Ask God to remind you of His goodness. I've been listening to an audiobook recently of a famous actor who died a sudden tragic death recently and his whole life was filled with drug addiction and alcohol addiction.

I mean, this is a guy that most people that are starting out in the business or most people, this is what every actor and actress, they aspire to the life that he had. To the money that he had, to the prestige that he had, to all that he lived. He finally made it. If I mentioned his name or the show he was in, you would know exactly who he is, no doubt.

He had everything you would think. But over and over again he mentions, as he reads this audiobook, over and over he mentions but nothing would fill that emptiness. Nothing would fill the emptiness. Relationship after relationship, bottle after bottle, pill after pill, paycheck after paycheck, house after house.

He even mentioned recently I was listening, he even mentioned, "I was feeling bad one day so I just went down and bought a car, a Bentley of all that." He said, "It made me happy for about five days." And then he'd pick it up again. He went through the cycle of sobriety and going back and sobriety and going back, sobriety and going back.

It hit me, because it wasn't the purpose for which I got the book and wanted to listen to it, but God had a purpose that was different than anything that I had. God just recently has welled up in me how thankful I am that He delivered me from those addictions in my life. I mean, just that alone. I can hear the testimonies and almost every page, I'm like, that would have been my life.

That would have been my life. If I lived that long, that would have been my life. I would have been running over here and I've been running over there. And yet at the point of time, God revealed to me why I was created, why I was on the planet, and exactly what He wanted to do with my life. Some of you might go, "He told you you were a pastor that early?" No, not at all.

He revealed to me in the moment of my salvation how much He loved me and wanted me to be in relationship with Him. That's my purpose in life. Everything else is second and third and fourth, and all the responsibilities and all the titles. All of that pale in comparison to a God that loves me and would welcome me into His family by the blood of Jesus Christ.

How can you not sing when you know what God has done? How can you not sing? I just want you to consider again, I might be speaking to a very small group today, but how can you come into the sanctuary of God so welled up with the love of God and so glad what He's doing in your life, the rescuing power, the amazing faithfulness He showed?

How is it possible that you come and sit there and go, "I don't like that song"? Oh, come on, man. No. How could you not like that song? How could you not see the Lord high and lifted up, where the train of His robe fills the temple? And the angels are crying holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Where it's so amazing in the presence of God that you fall on your face and worship. You say, "Lord, You've been so good to me." They're singing because of God and what God has done. God made a way where there was no way. Do you have that as a testimony in your life? Have you ever seen God make a way for you where there was no way?

I want you to think, those of you that were born into a Christian family and you were raised from a very young age, from a very young age to love God. You loved God because of your parents or your grandparents or great-grandparents, and eventually the love of God became your own love. You were raised in the right way, you surrendered your life, you're born again.

You think, "I don't really have a way where there is no way." Well, all you need to do is go back some generations, because somewhere in your family tree, God made a way where there was no way. Where it was hopeless, when all was lost. Well, that's where the children of Israel are. We went through this song as they sang it, Miriam leading worship.

God showed up as the Lord of hosts, as their defender, as their protector, as the leader of the army. Remember He came as the leader, the God of the army. He fought their battles for them. They didn't have the resources to fight, they didn't have the army or the military. No, God brought them into a place that shocked them, stirred up in all these emotions, and delivered them.

He wanted them to understand something very early, if you're taking notes. He wanted them to understand, like He wants us to understand, that the life that we live right now on Earth, this is not a playground, it's a battlefield. Just like the Promised Land, we'll learn in the book of Joshua, the Promised Land was not a playground, it was a battlefield.

It's true, you're in a spiritual warfare. The world, the flesh, the devil, it's real, it's predictable, at times it's overwhelming, sometimes shocking and surprising. Many today even listening to me right now are living in defeat, not using the weapons that God has given us to fight. Not wanting to, not willing to sing a song of victory.

Some of you, we need to sing the song of victory, not because of what God has done, although that gets us there, but we're singing a song of victory by faith. We're like, I know You're a God of victory. I know You're the God of the army. I know that You can work. I've seen You before, I've seen it in my friend, I've seen it in my neighbor. Lord, I'm singing this because I want to see it in my own life.

The Lord will meet you there. Don't give in. Don't just collapse. Don't just turn around, don't quit. Don't compromise, don't run away, don't wander away. But stand and fight, church. Fight together in the spiritual realm. The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 12, "Fight the good fight of faith and lay a hold of eternal life."

Any time and every time you decide to take a stand for Jesus, just expect an all-out assault upon your life. It goes with the territory. It goes to the place where you need to look to the Lord continually. Every spiritual warfare, heavy spiritual attacks are signs that you're on the right track. Now if you were a sideline Christian, dabbling in religious things, not really interested in making progress, then that's right where the devil wants you.

A Christian in name only, in word only. But once you take a strong stand to obey, he'll unleash a full frontal assault upon your life and on each side and from behind. I want to show you this, we'll get to Exodus in a moment. Would you turn over Isaiah 54 with me? Isaiah 54, I want you to mark this.

It's one of those passages we mention quite frequently, but I want you to memorize it. I want you to see it in your Bible. I want you to mark it. If you're using your iPad or your phone, I want you to screenshot it, put it right on your homepage. Isaiah chapter 54 verse 17. Listen.

This is so valuable, so important. It's given, it's laid out for us later on in Ephesians, but listen. It says, "No weapon formed against you shall prosper and every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is from Me," says the Lord.

Isn't that just enough to sing from that one verse? No weapon formed against you will prosper. God will accomplish His work and finish it in your life, no matter what it looks like. No matter how trapped you feel, no matter how the circumstances look. Listen, if you're paying attention to circumstances, you're only getting half the story, if that.

You may not even be getting half the story. You're just getting what's in front of you. Well, you don't understand, this has happened to me, this has happened to me, this has happened to me. Yeah, but that's not the whole story. Here's the whole story: what God has started in you, He will complete until the day of Jesus Christ.

That's the whole story. That Jesus on the cross said, "It is finished." It's finished. You can trust Him. No weapon formed, I know it doesn't feel that way. It does feel sometimes that the weapons are prospering. Read the Psalms. David was living that out all the time. "Why are they doing this? And why are they doing this? And what's happening? Why are you so discouraged, soul? What's wrong with you? What's happening? Look at all my enemies."

But God. But God. It's even an area where singing helps your emotions. Did you know that? Singing can help your emotions. When you just begin to obey God and lift up your voice in song, or if you don't want to lift it up in song, you can hum it, you can whistle it. You can give a joyful noise to the Lord.

But church, think of the goodness of God and respond with a song in your heart. That's where the children of Israel are here in Exodus 15. There's a song in their heart. Just like us now, they too had to move on. Life isn't always a song. It's not always a song, I should say. It doesn't last forever. Songs come to an end and then we got to move on.

And that's where the children of Israel are here. The song came to an end and then they had to move on. Notice with me, Exodus 15 verse 22. "So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they had come to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah for they were..."

What does your Bible say? Bitter. "Therefore the name of it was called Marah." Four times God wants us to understand the significance of this word, Marah. Three times and "bitter" once. He wants us to understand that bitterness comes to us all. And here they are three days later and they come to waters and they're thirsty. Hot desert.

They went from that time of rejoicing out into the wilderness. The wilderness is a place of preparation, did you know that? The wilderness is often a place of preparation. It's a place of battle in the spiritual realm when Jesus went out in the wilderness, the devil met Him there. But the wilderness becomes a place of victory because the devil had to leave because the word of God was spoken to him and the truth prevailed.

But the wilderness is not a place we like to be in. It gets to the place where we're out in the wilderness of life and we get thirsty, and we come to water and we're expecting it to give us what we want, and we only come to find out that the waters were bitter. And here at the waters of Marah, I want you to notice that three days is all it took.

And it may not be three days for you; it could be three hours. It could be three minutes. But after just three days, it didn't take very long. Three days they've forgotten the faithfulness of God, they've forgotten the goodness of God, they've forgotten the victory of God, and they've forgotten that God is leading them.

They forgot that God is leading them. And one of the things they needed to understand with the waters here is that God led them to Marah. God led them here. He led them to this place of bitterness. But really, it's not merely a place of bitterness; it's a God led them to a place of faith. This was a point of decision.

And it helps me a lot to remember, when I do remember, that the Lord allows difficulties in my life to bring me to a place of decision. Will I trust and obey and abide and rest, or will I freak out and be all upset and get into the flesh and on and on the list goes? Will I be in the spirit or will I be in the flesh?

And one of the obstacles that this young nation now is facing after dealing with fear, and that's where they were at the Red Sea, dealing with fear. The very next temptation in their life was bitterness. Fear and bitterness, they go together. And as they take the waters in, it says, "When they came to Marah, they couldn't drink it because the waters were bitter." Verse 23.

So they named it bitter. So quickly they forgot the power of God. And you know, I have to say, and I want to speak to some of you today as well where everything seemed to be bitter to this former slave nation because of their heritage. They have been generationally raised as slaves. They've been embittered by life.

I'm certain some of you have been embittered by life. It hasn't been an easy life thus far, and so things are bitter to you. There's just a lack of sweetness. It can be very hard to exercise faith when everything seems bitter. Not only when the water's bitter, this is very clear, but even when the water's just a little got a little bad taste to it, it tastes bitter to you because of the difficulty of your life.

The Israelites were bitter here, not only because of the water, but they brought it with them. The Bible says that we're new creations in Christ, old things have been passed away, all things become new. And that's great from the spiritual realm. There are technical theological words to describe our salvation, one of them is justification, where immediately you're changed and born again.

But then the process from justification until you meet Jesus face-to-face, there's a Bible word for that: it's called sanctification. And part of the process of being conformed into the image of Christ, the sanctification process, is dealing with all the baggage that you brought with you from your unbelieving days, or your unbelieving family, or the generations of difficulty.

Now, you know, some churches would look at that and go, "Oh, you know, that's a generational curse." No, it's not a generational curse. Any curse that ever in your life was broken on the cross of Jesus Christ. You are not powerless to deal with these generational things; you just need to understand them and confess them to the Lord.

If you're like, "Man, I'm just so bitter. I'm just like my mom and it's just the generational curse on me." No, no, no. You picked up some bad habits in the home that you grew up in and they became a part of how you responded to things. And so now God is showing you a new way. He's saying, "You're not bound by the generations before you. You're not bound by your old bad habits. You're not bound by your fleshly way that you lean into things. You're not bound by that anger. You're not bound by that addiction. You are free in Christ."

But God brings you to these places so you can choose by faith to follow Him. That you can choose by faith to see His power. They had this glorious deliverance, yes. They had this beautiful personally written song by Moses, yes. They've been set free, yes. God has provided for them up to this day, even the three days it took to get to the waters of Marah.

But now that they're at the waters of Marah and the bitter waters remind them of their bitter past and it just swallows them up. Every Christian, every one of us, has a Marah or two or three in our lives. It's part of our fallen world. A time or a season of bitterness and anguish.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Abounding Grace with our Bible teacher and Pastor Ed Taylor. To give this a second listen, all you need to do is visit aboundinggraceradio.com or oneplace.com. You can also listen through our app, and that can be found in the App Store or Google Play. Just search for Ed Taylor.

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